Council removes video over Justin Bieber copyright
ReutersA council has removed a promotional video from its newsletter, which featured a Justin Bieber track, following a copyright warning.
West Berkshire Council pulled the material after a member of the public suggested the authority did not have the rights to use it.
Ben Holden-Crowther raised the official TikTok account post as part of public questions at full council.
A spokesperson for the council, said: "West Berkshire Council takes copyright and intellectual property matters seriously and seeks to ensure that content is created and shared in accordance with the relevant legal and platform requirements."
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, violating copyright can lead to a hefty fine ranging from standard statutory damages of hundreds of thousands of pounds per song, up to multi-million dollar lawsuits for major commercial plagiarism.
The council's post, promoting its own newsletter had used a Justin Bieber track and video, with the tag line 'If Justin loves it, then you will too'.
"As a matter of good practice, we've removed the video whilst we review the issue which has been raised," it said.
"The council does not routinely purchase licences for commercial music.
"Our only regular spend is an annual subscription to a royalty-free music library, which costs less than £300 per year."